Hey Adam, Could You Spare a Rib?
Wed, Oct 5, 2005
by Geoff Young
Well. So much for the Padres sweeping the series, eh?
Thank you. Stick around; the jokes get worse.
Not quite the coming-out party that Jake Peavy and the Padres were hoping for Tuesday morning in St. Louis. On the other hand, folks who aren’t familiar with the Friars got a nice little 9-inning capsule of their season. The formula goes like this:
- Dig a large hole with sloppy defense and poor clutch hitting.
- Scratch and claw back to within striking distance.
- Come up just short.
- Lose a key player in the process.
- Better luck next time, or maybe not.
Peavy looked very strong in the early going, breezing through the first two innings except for a solo homer to Jim Edmonds. Then in the third, the Padres defense started doing what it does. Edmonds dunked a blooper into shallow left that Ryan Klesko couldn’t reach. After a Peavy wild pitch scored the Cards’ second run of the game, Reggie Sanders lined a shot toward Mark Sweeney at first. Sweeney couldn’t handle it, and the ball rolled into shallow right field for a two-run single. It was a tough play, but as ESPN broadcaster Jon Miller noted, “A real top notch first baseman would’ve gotten that ball.”
Meanwhile, Chris Carpenter wasn’t able to command his breaking ball early and the Padres had numerous opportunities to do damage. But double plays ended the second, third, and fourth innings, and the Pads came up empty. What else is new, right?
A grand slam off the bat of Sanders in the fifth made the score 8-0 and the game looked to be over. But the Padres, as has been the case most of the season, didn’t go down without a fight. They scored single runs in the seventh and eighth, and three in the ninth. Ramon Hernandez, representing the tying go-ahead (thanks to reader LynchMob for pointing this out in the comments) run, struck out against closer Jason Isringhausen to end the contest. So the Pads didn’t quite make it all the way back but they at least put a little fear into the Cardinals and their fans.
Or, rather, they would have put fear into the Cards if it weren’t for Peavy’s rib. Peavy, in case you missed it, has a fractured rib that apparently will knock him out the rest of the way. He thinks he broke it during last week’s celebration of the NL West title.
I did mention that the jokes get worse, didn’t I?
Here’s one for you, courtesy of longtime reader Eric in the In-Game Discussion:
Ironic that we could have won this game if Peavy hadn’t pitched. All our other pitchers shut them down today, and we ended up scoring 5 runs.
Anyway, all is not lost. I hold out hope that the Padres can stave off the inevitable chorus of self-congratulatory “I told you sos” from a bunch of wags back east who don’t really know where San Diego is. Not that anything will stop them from doing that, because that’s what they do, but if the Pads can just shut ‘em up for a little while I’ll be happy.
Can the Padres win the series? Of course they can. If you truly believed that they didn’t have a chance, would you even watch? I’ll grant you, it’s not likely, but if Darrell May can beat Johan Santana, and Chan Ho Park can beat Pedro Martinez, anything is possible. Heck, even the 1984 Padres lost the first game of their series against the Cubs, 13-0.
Now you may ask, “Geoff, why are you so damned positive about this team?” Two reasons, neither of which has anything to do with baseball:
- In life, it’s generally easier to be negative than positive. I have a tremendous capacity for negative thinking myself. But I’m stubborn and don’t like to do things the easy way. So I stay positive.
- Being positive annoys people who aren’t. If there’s anything I like better than being positive, it’s annoying negative people. This probably isn’t the most noble reason to be positive, but go with what works for you.
Okay, enough of the pop philosophy. Right now the Padres need to regroup and play better baseball. They need to focus on Game 2 and find a way to overcome the loss of Peavy. And most of all, they need to stay away from those Hertz Donuts.
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October 5, 2005 at 7:11 am
Granted, we might not have scored 5 off them if the game were closer (and they pitched/defended more carefully), and any of our non-Peavys could have allowed more runs had they run through the Card’s lineup a 2nd or 3rd time.
October 5, 2005 at 8:35 am
Brian Gunn’s thoughts on Game 1 at THT:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/m.....ke-game-1/
Two things I learned from this one: 1) Peavy has a famous temper and 2) the Padres seem like they’re good fielders. I’m surprised at the first because I didn’t realize Peavy’s temper was all that bad (he’s uber-competitive; maybe that’s what Gunn meant?) and also I didn’t think he had a famous *anything* outside of San Diego. To the second, I’d say they only seem like good fielders to anyone who hasn’t been watching them all year.
October 5, 2005 at 9:42 am
From St.Louis Dispatch:
Despite the team saying Peavy is out at least a month, he’s not giving up hope.
“Don’t count me out just yet,” he said. “This is a broken rib and maybe there are things we can do to make it feel a lot better. If there’s a way to get out there, I promise you I will.”
Well, I love Peavy’s competitiveness but we don’t want him to hurt more for next season, do we?
Peavy, sit down and cheer, but not too much. No dog-piling policy from now on.
October 5, 2005 at 12:10 pm
GY … got a correction for you … instead of …
Ramon Hernandez, representing the tying run, struck out against closer Jason Isringhausen to end the contest.
… it needs to say that Ramon represented the go-ahead run … Fick, Giles and Loretta were on base …
October 5, 2005 at 1:09 pm
Thanks, LM. I didn’t see that part of the game and I misread the play-by-play. Will correct tonight.
October 5, 2005 at 4:09 pm
GY - you weren’t the only one making that mistake … several articles I’ve read today have said the same thing (that Ramon was the tieing run at the plate) … odd …
OT: Can you believe that someone older than ME is starting on a MLB playoff team today??? Man, something’s wrong with that! http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/3001
October 5, 2005 at 7:00 pm
How is this possible, Howard? Is Gaylord Perry on one of the playoff teams’ active roster?
October 5, 2005 at 7:18 pm
I too am positive about tomorrows game, cough cough, sneeze, sneeze, only because the Padre pattern this year is to play terribly then come back and play better.
Remember, its gonna be a nice chicken dinner tomorrow afternoon.
God, why is that all the NL games are on during the day and the Al games on at night? Can anybody say…Yankees-Redsocks.
BTW, is Boston the ugliest team EVER. Get a haircut son, and a shave too…
Go Padres!
October 5, 2005 at 7:57 pm
I am oddly hopeful. Eaton, Astacio and Williams can all pitch good games. And the hitters can intermittently wake up. So, it would be a great story to see them rebound.